Alireza Masrour, Managing Partner, Plug & Play Ventures
Mr. Masrour graduated from Tehran University with a BS in Engineering and with an MBA from Royal Roads University and Sharif University. After founding VidaTel and NekaTel, one of the largest Internet Airtime Distribution Networks, with over 800 retailers and millions of subscribers, as a Managing Partner at Plug & Play Ventures he is leading the investment and management of more than 100 ventures. Mr. Masrour has prior Engineering and Management background and published “Crossing the Digital Divide: What’s Next” in Information Technologies and International Development in 2004. As one of the Silicon Valley’s leading minds in investment management he is recurrently taking posts as a judge in America’s best universities’ entrepreneurial competitions.
We interviewed Alireza Masrour during the EXPO conference at Plug and Play Tech Center, he shared his experience on what characteristics he is looking for when he interviews start-ups.
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Benedict Evans, Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Mr. Evans has attended Charterhouse School and holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge. In his career in strategic consulting and analytics he worked in a variety of enterprises such as WestLB Panmure, MF Global, Orange, Channel 4, NBC Universal and Enders Analysis. As a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley that invests in technology companies, he became an opinion and thought leader dealing with issues of the digital economy in blog posts, podcasts, a newsletter and on twitter.
Benedict Evans was one of our first experts to contribute to the course. He agreed to answer our questions regarding different types of VC firms and mobile. His answers have been very helpful in order to build the content for this course.
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Ethan Prater, Business Angel
Mr. Prater holds a BA from Yale University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Working in product management and product marketing in education technology, health care, enterprise Software as a Service, consumer Internet, and digital media and advertising he became a knowledgeable expert in the field of online marketing. Mr. Prater has held leading marketing positions in many Silicon Valley companies including Castlight Health, Jigsaw (Data.com at Salesforce.com), Yahoo, DoubleClick, and IGN. He is the former Chief Executive Officer of NovoEd, a San Francisco-based company enabling collaborative learning and an active Business Angel.
We have interviewed Ethan Prater, due to his strong knowledge on how to grow a company and asked him about his experience regarding the relationship between the CEO and the VCs of a startup.
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Gus Warren, Co-Founder and COO, Disconnect
Since graduating with a BA in Government from Cornell University Mr. Warren worked both as an investor and operating executive in tech startups and Fortune 500 companies. In his more than 20 years in the tech branch he has been in leading positions at Internet Profiles, NetMarket, and later at Spot Runner, as a venture capitalist at Granite Ventures and Time Warner Ventures he managed and advised ventures including InfoGear (acquired by Cisco), Speakeasy (acquired by BestBuy), and Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco). Currently Mr. Warren is Founding Member and COO of Disconnect Inc., a leading consumer privacy software company.
Gus Warren provided his experience on how the VC ecosystem has changed over the last few years and how the internet is disrupting the traditional VC business.
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Jan Kemper, Chief Financial Officer, Zalando
Dr. Kemper holds a degree from the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, an MBA from the ESC Bordeaux and a Ph.D. from RWTH Aachen University awarded with the Publication Award of the School of Business and Economics. As an Analyst he held positions at Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and worked as the Managing Director / CFO of Groupon GmbH. In his current position as the Senior Vice President / CFO Dr. Kemper manages Zalando SE, one of the largest e-commerce companies in Europe operating in fourteen countries and having worldwide success with spin-offs and subsidiary companies.
Jan Kemper remains to have a close relationship to the entrepreneurship chair at RWTH Aachen University and provides important industry insight that helps build the university courses besides giving guest lectures at RWTH Aachen.
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Kevin Talbot, Managing Partner, Relay Ventures
Mr. Talbot holds a BA degree in Strategic Studies and the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors’ Corporate Governance College at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, an MBA, with distinction, from York University and has held an appointment as Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Schulich School of Business (York University) in Toronto. As an entrepreneur, operator and investor both in Canada and the US he has worked as the Vice President of Venture Capital and Managing Director of RBC Venture Partners and has sit in the boards of Thor Technologies (acquired by Oracle), iPhrase Technologies (acquired by IBM), Inea Corp. (acquired by Cartesis/Business Objects), Infobright Inc., Tacit Software (acquired by Oracle) and CashEdge (acquired by SIG). Mr. Talbot is Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Relay Ventures, an early stage venture fund exclusively focused on mobile software and sits currently in the boards of Xobni, PayFone, WorldMate, Appia, Brickstream, Igloo and Jana.
During our interview with Kevin Talbot, we have learned a lot about the different types of Venture Capital firms and their strategic approaches.
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Michael Davies, Chairman at Endeavour Partners, Teaches Strategy Entrepreneurship at MIT and London Business School
Mr. Davies holds an MBA from London Business School, and Masters degrees in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and the University of Durham. He held executive and strategic advisory roles with leading firms including Boston Consulting Group, BellSouth International, Braxton Associates, GeoPartners Research and Mars Electronics, and has also been successful as an entrepreneur in mobile communication business. In 2003 he founded Endeavour Partners to fill the need for strategy consulting explicitly for mobile and digital business and technology decisions. In addition to that Mr. Davies is a Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Guest Lecturer at the London Business School.
We have interviewed Michael Davies in his office in Boston and he has shared his thoughts on what you should be aware of when working with a VC, what makes great teams great and why your start-up should focus strongly on discovering their customers.
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Michael Minis, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Tamyca, a German venture-backed startup
As Tamyca's CEO, Michael was able to successfully acquire VC funding for his startup. They currently work on revolutionizing modern transportation and mobility in urban areas through peer-to-peer and corporate car-sharing. In our course, Michael will share his experience in dealing with a VC, talk about mistakes and learnings he made during the process and will provide valuable tips for all entrepreneurs which are about to take the same steps as he did.
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Michael Stünkel, Partner at Lakestar, a Zurich-based Venture Capital firm
Michael is Partner at the Venture Capital firm Lakestar and has actively been involved in numerous start-up investments and exits. He scouts for talented entrepreneurial teams all over the globe and supports the most promising founders with strategic advice. Michael has been representing Lakestar on a number of boards of directors. Prior to joining Lakestar, Michael was in the ECM team of UBS Investment Bank in London where he worked on finance projects such as high profile IPOs, capital raisings, and M&A transactions.
Michael completed his undergraduate studies in business administration at WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management and HKUST in Hong Kong. He also holds a Master of Science in Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Prof. Nik Tehrani, VP Business Development, DynoSense
Prof. Tehrani holds an MBA from George L. Graziadio School of Business and Management and a Ph.D. from the Northcentral University and has over 25 years of experience in business management, marketing, and supply chain development and implementation. He taught Management, Marketing, and Business courses at Oulu Polytechnic University in Oulu, Finland, Shanxi Administrative University in Tai Yuan, China, Universidad Del Pacifico in Santiago, Chile, Sejong University in Seoul, Korea, and Saigon Tech Institute and University of Finance and Marketing in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Dr. Nik Tehrani is currently Vice-President of Business Development for DynoSense Corp., one of the leaders in emerging Advanced Remote Monitoring and Preventive Care Solutions and Member of Board of Directors, Co-Chair of Education Committee, and Member of Innovation Committee of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
During our interview he gave us an insight into his current venture and its goals as well as practical advice for first time founders.
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Prof. Paul Kim, Chief Technology Officer, Stanford School of Education
Prof. Kim received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Technology from the University of Southern California in 1999 and has held positions such as the Executive Director of Information Technology at the University of Phoenix, the Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Vatterott College, and the Chairman of the Board for the Intercultural Institute of California. As the Chief Technology Officer and Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University Prof. Kim both teaches graduate courses and leads various projects dealing with the design of learning technologies, educational research, community development, and many other technology related topics.
We have interviewed Prof. Kim about what skills students need in order to become successful entrepreneurs, his recommendations about timing when to look for VC funding and why Silicon Valley is so attractive for early stage startups.
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Thomas Neubert, VP/GM Group Business Development & Partnering, Deutsche Telekom
Mr. Neubert studied Computer Science at the bib International College Paderborn. Since moving to Silicon Valley in 1991 he spent ten years primarily in the multimedia PC industry and as Vice President / General Manager at ELSA Inc. He led numerous successful startups, worked together with Skype, Yahoo, and Google and held worldwide strategic accounts of Dell and Hewlett-Packard as the Director of Strategic Account Development at Logitech Inc. In his current position as Vice President / General Manager Group Business Development & Partnering at Deutsche Telekom he establishes strategic partnerships with technology companies, entrepreneurs and venture capital community to align local activities with international objectives in 13 European countries. The topics range from B2C/B2B, Connected Car, Wearable Devices, Connected Home, IoT, eHealth and education and engagements have been made with companies like Google, Facebook/Twitter, Evernote, Box, Lookout, WhatsApp, Dropbox, Intel TrueKey, Disconnect, Mojio, and many others.
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Zhalisa Clarke, Director of Business Development and Partnerships, Udacity
Since graduating from Harvard University with a BA in Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School Ms. Clarke has led marketing teams at Citigroup, American Express and Yahoo, developed strategic recommendations for Fortune 500 companies as a management consultant at Bain & Company, and drove multi-million dollar sales growth with both Fortune 500 companies and startups at frog. In her current position as the Director of Business Development and Partnerships, working together with Silicon Valley leaders such as Google, Facebook, Salesforce, and Cloudera, she develops online tech trainings to bridge the technology skills gap and to help for professionals become Web Developers, Data Analysts, Mobile Developers, etc.